Wonton Mushroom Soup for a Cold Winter’s Night, in Houston

A savory and delicious recipe

Believe it or not, Houston is getting colder, and what could be better than soup for lunch or dinner? This could be a vegetarian soup or, if you want, you can use pork or shrimp wontons instead of the vegetarian wontons and use chicken broth rather than vegetable broth. I made the soup vegetarian style, but used pork and shrimp wontons because that was all we had in the freezer.

• A package of sliced fresh shiitake and/or cremini mushrooms

• Optional: Package of cauliflower mushrooms

• Olive oil

• Oil spray (for the wonton crisps)

• 2 sliced shallots

• 3 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 Teaspoon, minced fresh ginger cups

• 1 package shredded carrots (use only 1 cup)

• 1 cups fresh snow pea pods, trimmed and halved crosswise or 1 package of already trimmed, washed, and ready to go snow peas

• ¼ cup rice vinegar

• 3 Tablespoons soy sauce

• 1 32-oz. cartons reduced-sodium vegetable or chicken broth

• 2 packages frozen pork and vegetable mini wonton dumplings or vegetable dumplings (10 wonton dumplings per package)

• ½ cup sliced green onions

• 1 package of wontons for wonton crisps

Makes 4-6 servings

1. You can either fry them up in oil or prepare them in an oven:
   Preheat oven to 400°F. Cut 8 wonton wrappers into ¼-inch strips. Arrange on a baking sheet and coat with nonstick cooking spray. Bake 5 to 7 minutes or until golden and cool. Also, you can store and freeze these for later. “But they’re like potato chips!” Paula tells me. Because she can’t have potatoes, she snacks on these instead. You can also use an air fryer. I have not tried this, but have a convection oven and it’s pretty much the same thing.

2. Slice green onions on an angle (one day, I’ll upload a video on knifing skills).

3. Cooking tip: whenever a recipe calls for garlic and onions, I start by sautéing them on low with a dash of salt in order to get them flavorful before layer the other flavors. The salt will help caramelize the onions by drawing out the moisture. Add sliced onions and minced garlic to a cooking pot with a table spoon of olive oil.

4. Add garlic

5. Add mushrooms and sauté until lightly browned.

6. Add carrots and snow peas and sauté for a minute

7. Add vinegar, soy sauce, and carton of broth

8. Add the frozen wontons dumplings and cook them through, about 5 minutes

9. Serve by spooning the soup into a bowl with a ladle. Add the sliced green onions, and YUM!

As you can tell, we love a home cook meal, especially since Paula has dietary restrictions. These are easy recipes that don’t take much time, but are good for you. If you want more strictly Vietnamese dishes, I’ll upload some of those also, but let me say that most Vietnamese dishes are not difficult, but require many ingredients and much time to prep.

If I have time, I make the wonton dumplings from scratch and have a great recipe for that also, but I’ll post that some other day and perhaps an article about the cooking culture around making wonton dumplings.

Thanks so much for continuing to support my work! Please let me know what kinds of recipes you would like to see.